Growing Lilac

Tell me how to grow it, where to grow it, and what kind to grow ~I'm looking for one that will cover a 5ft south-facing fence without taking 30 years.

 

Buy a good specimen from a reliable outlet. Plant it, water it, and leave it to grow!
They aren't difficult shrubs, as long as they have decent soil and enough moisture - as with most shrubs. They're all flowering just now round here. They do take a good few years to get sizeable though. South facing will make it a bit harder - they're very good for semi shade, but as long as the soil is moisture retentive, and it's watered well until established, it'll be fine.
I often fancied getting a white one for this garden, as some of the lilac ones are too pale for my preferences, but none of them are particularly tricky in any way.

 

Not much help but I have a dwarf one, growing in a pot in full sun. The roots have gone down into rubbish ground and it gets watered rarely. It has grown slowly, only around 2 1/2 ft in several years but it flowers every year, not much scent though.

 

I could shift it along to the corner, there it would face more east. And need remember to water it, that's a dry corner. TY fairygirl!

 

TY goldenlily!

 

Once it gets large, it will tend to have flowers just at the top. By then the stems will be thick. My granddad’s method was to cut out one thick stem, right down at the bottom, every autumn. By gradually replacing each tall stem like this you will get new shoots, and flowers lower down. It worked really well.

 

Also, they prefer neutral or alkaline soil. Just checking in case you have acidic soil.

 

That's a great idea, thank you! Not acidic soil so that's ok.

 

They're fine with some acidity - all the soil round here is neutral to acidic

 

Our soil is slightly acidic as well. The only issue we have is some of ours don’t get enough sun to flower. Those in full or almost full sun flower the most

 

We don't really get huge amouonts of sun at this time of year anyway, and certainly not in the preceding month or two, but perhaps they'd flower more if that was the case!
A lot of shrubs have certainly been more fulsome in the last couple of years because there's been little to no winter weather compared to our more usual winters. Skimmias being the most notable - I never noticed the smell of the flowers until last year, and maybe the previous year, because they really don't flower very well most years here. The weather just sees the flowers off before they open.

 

Yes, the winters can ruin anything. Last house was up on moors at 300m and for 30 years I battled with weather - much easier down here. So can I buy lilac and put it in now, or is there a set time to plant it??